Opinion: Immigrants deserve to be respected

A Honduran sits with his painting on which he included text that reads in Spanish: "No war. No violence. No discrimination.", at the El Chaparral U.S.-Mexico border crossing, in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, May 2, 2018, where the caravan of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States have set up camp. Some migrants in the caravan have started what will likely be a long process. About 28 were accepted for processing Monday and Tuesday by U.S. border inspectors at a San Diego crossing. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik)

A Honduran sits with his painting on which he included text that reads in Spanish: "No war. No violence. No discrimination.", at the El Chaparral U.S.-Mexico border crossing, in Tijuana, Mexico, Wednesday, May 2, 2018, where the caravan of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States have set up camp. Some migrants in the caravan have started what will likely be a long process. About 28 were accepted for processing Monday and Tuesday by U.S. border inspectors at a San Diego crossing. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik)

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After a few months of migration, the caravan of Latin American immigrants reached the southern border of the United States on seeking asylum, and I hope that all of them get in.

Originally numbering in the thousands, the caravan has shrunk dramatically since it started to 150 to 300 people. Most of them were deported in Mexico before reaching the United States.

Most are from Honduras, fleeing from the political violence that was incited after the contested election of Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party of Honduras after reports that the voting committee tampered with the election.

Incidentally, the Trump Administration did in fact back his election in what can only be called a show of causal neoliberalism.

Central America has always been in political turmoil for as long as I can remember, and the fact that I can say that saddens me. The fact that most people see Latin America as a continent full of crime and nothing else, despite the strength and diversity of its people, is very disappointing.

I went to Honduras to visit my mother’s side of my family for two weeks in December, after not seeing them in person for over ten years.

I went into that country in the middle of a political crisis, and I could barely understand living with my family I also hardly knew. Living in Honduras even for only two weeks, I think I experienced Honduras in all of its faults and strengths.

People in the United States may not like hearing this, but these people live extremely similar to us here in the United States. My family does sweatshop labor trying to work to get their kids to go to college. It is not glamorous in the slightest, but they do it in hopes of a better future.

My family works so hard, and had to make many sacrifices to send my grandparents over to the United States. I do not blame anyone for wanting to leave the country. The people in these countries want better lives, and they come to the United States because the United States always says that it is the best country in the world.

If the United States really was the best country in the world, it would find a way to let these people in, regardless of any so-called illegality in their immigration. These people are so similar to us, and we need to treat them as people.